Month: April 2013

Utah State Park: Snow Canyon Day 1

This last week, me and the tots spent spring break down at Utah’s Snow Canyon State Park. Now, don’t be confused by its name.  Snow Canyon has probably never actually had any snow in it, since it is located just outside St. George, Utah, one of the warmest places in the state.  Snow canyon is named after Lorenzo and Erastus Snow, early Utah pioneers.

Our first day was spent mostly in the car. As any parent of young children know, sometimes the car can be synonymous with torture chamber, but luckily for me little g slept most of the four hour trip down and Big E was easily entertained by my Kindle Fire tablet (Hooray for Blues Clues and Angry Birds!) Because of this, our first stop was just outside of St. George, at the very classy Minute Mart establishment.

Although stopping for gas and ice cream is not that exciting, it seemed that this, our first stop on our Snow Canyon State Park adventure, would prove prophetic.  E was content climbing on the rocks. G ran around the outside of the store as fast as her little legs would carry her and I spent most of my time preventing her from running into the road.

After, climbing, running and chasing was over I reached in my bag for my car keys and to my horror could not find them. They were not in my bag.  They were not in my pockets.  They were not on the rocks, sidewalk or road. I had them when I drove to Minute Mart and I distinctly remembered locking the car, therefore, they had to be there…somewhere.

After chasing g back into the store, and calling for E to follow, I finally found them in the crevice of the baby changing table in their restroom. Hint to future travelers: Do not put your keys on the baby changing table when changing your baby.  A better place would be your pocket, your bag or even on a rope around your neck.

With that potential tragedy averted we continued to our destination: Snow Canyon State Park.  We were lucky enough to be staying in the only campground in the park.  Not only that, my sister-in-law had booked the group site Cottontail for us, which was fenced, close to bathrooms and showers and had plenty of parking. But, more about the campground later. For now we were just happy to be out of the car and in the warmth of Southern Utah.

Old McBigE Had a Farm

Over the weekend I took the tots to to a very interesting Easter Egg hunt.  Like every young child, my tots love running around, finding colorful orbs full of surprises. In that respect, this Easter Egg hunt was no different than others we’d been to. What made this experience so interesting was the location.

We spent Saturday at the family farm – specifically the family of my brother and sister-in-law. A few years ago they abandoned the suburban life in exchange for the wide, windy expanse of ten acres, a small orchard and a large garden. They wanted to be self sufficient, get close to the land and raise their kids in a more rural environment. Because of their life choices, we get to enjoy family gatherings surrounded by fields of corn and alfalfa instead of being closely packed in with suburban neighbors. With their house in the country and our house in the mountains, we’ve got a whole range of habitats represented.

We dyed eggs with natural dyes (think pots full of grape juice and red cabbage soup) before racing around the yard, chasing Big E and little g while they picked up their prizes.

After that, we went for a hay ride. Now I know hayrides are generally thought of as autumn activities, but it was the perfect activity for the day. Here we are sitting on the hay with E’s “orange shirt friend,” with whom E had played all afternoon. True to four year old etiquette, E had been digging, running, jumping and playing with this boy all day, but had neglected to ask the boy’s name. Hence “orange shirt friend” sitting by us and smiling for our photo.
I think the best part of the hayride for me was the spontaneous singing, courtesy of little g. As we drove around the farm, we came in sight of a pigpen. G busted out with her rendition of “Old McDonald Had a Farm.”  It sounded something like, “AH baba da ahgaga, E I E I O.”

We finished the hayride and went to visit the chickens. I’m not sure why the sight of live animals made my tots smile so much, but even the stench of more than twenty pigs couldn’t dissuade their happiness. Big E and little g loved the farm, and I had a good time too.

Happy Easter!